1997 was a good year for concerts in Chicago. I won't say it was an awesome year because I saw a lot of mediocre shows. I also did not see anything of true greatness such as the October 1996 Grant Lee Buffalo / Sixteen Horsepower show. Nevertheless, I did see a lot of good concerts, and a few really good ones. And I discovered a number of great new bands (well, new to me at any rate) that I will be following in the years to come.
Naturally this is the only the year in review for the concerts I saw. One of the magical thing about concerts is that they are singular events. Unlike with a film, you can't wait for the review to decide if you want to go. Once it's over, it's over forever. And just because you see the same band on a different night is no guarantee it won't be a completely different experience. I can't think of any other sort of artistic performance or display that has as great a quality of "one time only" as the rock concert does.
There were probably serveral thousand rock shows in Chicago last year. I'm sure there were a lot of great ones I missed. And of course I'm biased towards shows that are in genres I like. I know people who went to about as many shows as I did with almost no overlap. But I did see quite a lot of concerts (over 50), so I think that gives me as solid a ground to make rankings as anybody else.
Concert of the Year: Bad Livers / Moonshine Willy - March 6 at Lounge Ax.
Moonshine Willy is one of my alt-country faves, and it was really them that I went to see. They were the opening act, as they had been every time I had seen them before. Consisently they had put on a better shows than the headliner, and the crowd reaction proved it. At a couple of their shows, substantial chunks of the audience left after they finished. I was expecting more of the same, particularly after MW came out and put on the performance of their career - a rocking, tight, loud, high energy set that bested most of the headliners I saw this year. I thought the Bad Livers were in serious trouble.
Boy was I wrong. The Bad Livers, a trio out of Austin, put on what was by far the greatest country/bluegrass performance I have ever witnessed. The band features an upright bass/tuba player, a guitar/mandolin player, and a lead singer (Danny Barnes) who is a banjo player. And what a banjo player he is. Watching his performance made me feel like the people seeing Hendricks for the first time in the 60's must have felt. Danny Barnes literally redefined the instrument right before my eyes. He's that good. The other musicians are excellent as well. And the music. Think Hank Williams, Sr. and Bill Monroe meet punk rock. It's straight ahead country and bluegrass, but with a serious dose of kick ass mixed in. The Livers' concerts are not to be missed under any circumstances. (Unfortunately, their albums don't quite measure up to the live performance).
I'm not going to act like certain critics and pick five different and politically correct genres for my top five. The second Livers' show I saw was almost as good as the first, and I don't feel bad at all about saying that they put on the two best shows of the year. (If they had played five times, they would probably have all five top slots). I was a bit surprised at how much I liked them the second time around. I figured that part of the reason I rated the first show so high was that it was so totally unexpected. This time, my expectations were sky high, but the Bad Livers still came through. They played the same high energy shit-kicking bluegrass as before. But this time the music was much more mandolin driven than banjo driven. I mean nothing can truly overshadow Danny Barnes' banjo picking, but the other two members were much more prominent this time around.
I had never heard of Devil in a Woodpile before, but I figured they had to be pretty brave to open for the Bad Livers. Well, not only were they brave, but they were good. It's a two man blues outfit. One guy plays acoustic guitar, the other sings and plays the harmonica (and the jug, and the washboard). They have a very impressive sound and I would definitely go to a show just to see them.
My biggest musical regret of the year is that I did not see every Shellac show. Like the Bad Livers, these guys are simply not to be missed. The one performance I did see was a free outdoor show at the Taste of Lincoln Avenue street festival. The temperature was like 105, and I was drenched in sweat after simply standing in the heat watching them, but it was well worth it. Steve Albini proved to me he knows more than just how to tell other people to make good music. He puts out some damn fine tunes himself. Shellac is a trio (guitar, bass, and drums) that plays a sort of "noise rock" based around various effects and distortion from Alibini's guitar. Unlike a lot of hard rockers, Steve Albini really doesn't seem to get into the performace that much. He just kind of stands there and plays. But in his case, this seems more like deliberate understatement than a lack of enthusiasm. I also just get the impression he's a laid back guy. The drummer is quite the character, however and provides an interesting display of flailing arms and practical jokes. Something tells me that if I had seen the other three Shellac shows, all of them would be at or near the top of my list as well.
At this show Dayton based Brainiac put on what was perhaps the most impressive singular performance of the year. Unfortunately, the overall quality of the show was dragged down a bit by the opening acts. Parisol, a lo-fi act out of New York, put on a listenable set, but Glow was terrible. They are a Chicago band with a female lead singer that has listened to a little too much bad British pop.
Brainiac more than made up for any deficiencies in their opening acts. It is a bit difficult to explain their music, but it's really loud, and a bit strange. Maybe a little like Shellac on acid and PCP. Actually, it kind of looked like lead singer Timmy Taylor might have been on something. During one song a beer bottle flew out of the crowd and broke across his forehead. While blood proceeded to cover most of his face, he didn't miss a beat and I'm not quite sure if he even felt the blow. (Actually, I'm not sure the whole thing wasn't staged). During another song he proceded to break two guitar strings. Lots of jumping around on stage. All of the lyrics screamed into the mic. That sort of thing. Definitely a performance to remember. The only problem I had with their set is that they only played 50 minutes. I lefting wishing for more, more, more.
On a sad note, a couple months after this show, Timmy Taylor died in a car accident. He wrapped his 1978 Mercedes around a telephone pole at 70 MPH while driving home from a band rehersal. The official explanation is that his accelerator got stuck. Yeah, right.
Perhaps the most diverse collection of bands I saw all year. I missed the Sweeties and got there just in time to see Prichard. Now that's a band I wish would play more often. I believe they are based in Chicago, but they don't play too much. Unfortunately, since they also don't have any albums (just a track on a compilation), I can't listen to them at home either. Their music definitely fits into the Brainiac/Shellac/noise rock mold. High energy, with a guitar, drums, and a violin pumped through distortion.
The Pulsars a two brothers who play unique kind of guitar based techno. The drummer puts on an very interesting visual as well as audio performance. The lead singer plays guitar and operates a pretty impressive looking sequencer. Their music does a good job of being suitable both for listening to and for dancing to. After I saw them, their fortunes improved tremendously. They've graduated to larger venues and even got a two page writup in Spin magazine.
The Handsome Family is one of my favorite alt-country bands. A husband and wife team (with some help from a drum machine) play mellow, haunting songs that are like free verse set to music. Very lyrically driven, though the the deceptively simple music really sets the mood for the whole thing.
Before getting to the complete concert list, here are just a few stats about my year in concerts.
| Number of Concerts Seen (Chicago Only) | 51 |
| Number of Different Venues | 18 |
| Total Cover Charges Paid | $542.50 |
| Total TicketBastard Fees Paid | $80.75 |
| Total Merchandise Purchased | $146 |
| Number of Times I Saw Moonshine Willy | 7 |
Here's a list of all the places I saw shows, and how many I saw at each place
| Venue | Concerts |
| Metro | 9 |
| Lounge Ax | 8 |
| Schuba's | 8 |
| Empty Bottle | 4 |
| Vic | 4 |
| Double Door | 2 |
| Fireside Bowl | 2 |
| House of Blues | 2 |
| Riviera | 2 |
| World Music Theatre | 2 |
| Aragon Ballroom | 1 |
| Beat Kitchen | 1 |
| Fitzgerald's | 1 |
| Gunther Murphy's | 1 |
| Martyr's | 1 |
| Ravinia | 1 |
| Rigoletto | 1 |
| Taste of Lincoln Ave. | 1 |
Lounge Ax and Schuba's are by far my two favorite concert spots.
The table below lists every Chicago concert I saw in 1997. For an explanation of my rating scale, see my ratings page. The TB column is a listing of TicketBastard fees paid.
| Date | Bands | Venue | Cover | TB | Rating | Genre |
| 1/4 | Robbie Fulks / Moonshine Willy / Mount Pilot | Empty Bottle | 6.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 1/11 | Jeff Tweedy / Nora O'Connor | Lounge Ax | 8.00 | ** | Alt-country/folk | |
| 1/15 | Brainiac / Glow / Parisol | Lounge Ax | 6.00 | *** | Loud rock | |
| 1/16 | Freakwater / Richard Buckner | Schuba's | 10.00 | 3.00 | * | Alt-country/folk |
| 1/22 | The Twigs | Rigoletto | ** | Harmonic rock | ||
| 1/24 | Nil Lara | Martyr's | 8.00 | 3.00 | ** | Alternapop |
| 1/25 | Crackpot / Moonshine Willy / Mount Pilot / The Rain Kings | Metro | ** | Variegated | ||
| 1/31 | Bottle Rockets / Sister Soleil / Silver Jet | House of Blues | 12.00 | 4.00 | *** | Variegated |
| 2/1 | Handsome Family / Pulsars / Prichard / Sweeties | Fireside Bowl | 7.00 | *** | Variegated | |
| 2/15 | Bob Mould / Verbow | Vic | 18.50 | 5.00 | *** | Acoustic rock |
| 2/21 | Cibo Matto / Pulsars / Cupcakes | Metro | 9.00 | ** | Variegated | |
| 2/22 | Sebadoh / Those Bastard Souls / Dianogah | Vic | 14.00 | *** | Alternapop | |
| 3/2 | 60 Foot Dolls / Hummer | Schuba's | 5.00 | *** | Punk | |
| 3/4 | Sister Soleil / Pet / Q-Up / Protein | Metro | 5.00 | * | Alternapop | |
| 3/6 | Bad Livers / Moonshine Willy | Lounge Ax | 7.00 | **** | Alt-country | |
| 3/11 | Counting Crows / Engine 88 | Aragon Ballroom | 22.50 | 6.00 | ** | Pop |
| 3/15 | Jon Spencer Blues Explosion / Doo Rag / The Blue Rags | Vic | 13.00 | 3.50 | *** | Alternapop |
| 4/3 | Old 97's / Whiskeytown / Picketts / Hazeldine | Schuba's | 10.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 4/10 | Chris Smither / Peter Mulvey | Fitzgerald's | 10.00 | ** | Blues | |
| 4/11 | Morphine / Wooden Leg | Riviera | 15.00 | 3.00 | ** | Alternapop |
| 4/17 | Ellis Paul (late show) | Schuba's | 8.00 | ** | Folk | |
| 4/18 | Freakwater / Moonshine Willy / Katie Belle | Empty Bottle | 7.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 4/25 | Shonen Knife / Pluto / Splitsville | House of Blues | 12.00 | ** | Pop | |
| 5/1 | Pavement / Shudder to Think | Metro | 12.00 | 3.25 | ** | Lo-Fi |
| 5/17 | Dinosaur, Jr. / Smoking Popes / Lotus Crows | Vic | 17.50 | 4.50 | *** | Loud rock |
| 5/22 | Wilco / The Jayhawks / Scrawl | Riviera | 19.50 | 4.75 | *** | Rock |
| 5/25 | Erasure / Bush / Beck / Veruca Salt / The Verve Pipe / Echo and the Bunnymen / Jamiroquai / Social Distortion / The Cardigans / Repubica / The Mighty Might Bosstones / Moby | World Music Theatre | 25.00 | 5.50 | ** | Alternapop |
| 5/30 | Waco Brothers / Country Melvins | Gunther Murphy's | 7.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 6/7 | Mitch Mitchell and the Terrifying Experience / Dishes / Pete Weiss Rock Band | Lounge Ax | 10.00 | * | Loud rock | |
| 6/8 | Smog / USA / Edith Frost | Lounge Ax | 7.00 | ** | Lo-Fi | |
| 6/12 | Guided by Voices / Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments | Metro | 12.50 | 3.50 | ** | Lo-Fi |
| 6/14 | Rush | World Music Theatre | 35.00 | 5.50 | ** | Rock |
| 7/9 | Jeff Tweedy / The Handsome Family | Lounge Ax | 10.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 7/11 | The Handsome Family / Pinetop Seven / The Aluminum Group | Schuba's | ** | Alt-country | ||
| 7/17 | Over the Rhine | Schuba's | 8.00 | ** | Folk-rock | |
| 7/25 | Moonshine Willy / Sally Timms / The Satellite Pumps | Empty Bottle | 6.00 | 6.00 | ** | Alt-country |
| 7/27 | Shellac | Taste of Lincoln Ave. | **** | Loud rock | ||
| 8/9 | Kelly Willis | Schuba's | 10.00 | ** | Country | |
| 8/13 | Suzanne Vega / Bruce Cockburn | Ravinia | 10.00 | ** | Folk-rock | |
| 8/16 | Skagina / Slow Gherkin / Eastern Standard Time / Flux Skapacitor / OB1 | Fireside Bowl | 6.00 | ** | Ska | |
| 9/6 | Bad Livers / Devil in a Woodpile | Lounge Ax | 8.00 | **** | Alt-country | |
| 9/13 | ??? / Moonshine Willy / David Moore | Beat Kitchen | 7.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 10/1 | Bob Mould / Verbow | Metro | 18.50 | 4.50 | ** | Rock |
| 10/4 | The Jayhawks / Pushbacks | Metro | 15.00 | 3.50 | ** | Rock |
| 10/12 | Blue Mountain / Robbie Fulks / Peat Moss | Double Door | 10.00 | 4.00 | ** | Alt-country |
| 10/31 | Dinosaur, Jr. / Electric Airlines | Metro | 17.50 | 4.25 | *** | Loud rock |
| 11/1 | Whiskeytown / Moonshine Willy | Double Door | 7.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 11/19 | Jeff Tweedy / ??? | Lounge Ax | 10.00 | ** | Alt-country | |
| 11/30 | Bottle Rockets / Mount Pilot | Schuba's | 10.00 | *** | Alt-country | |
| 12/6 | Mountain Goats / John Davis / Mia Doy Todd | Empty Bottle | 6.00 | * | Folk | |
| 12/31 | Jon Spencer Blues Explosion / North Mississippi All Stars (early show) | Metro | 25.00 | 4.00 | ** | Alternapop |
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